Title: Is That a Fact? Teaching Non-fiction Writing K-3
Author: Tony Stead
Reviewed by: Isabel Kelly

Do you find that when you assign a research project most of your students end up copying passages from books and many times students donít understand the words they wrote? Why do children copy these passages in the first place? This is the question that Tony Stead explores and helps us with in his book ìIs That a Fact?î The strategies that he provides are geared for grades Kinder through 3^rd, but many of them can also be used with older students.

Stead starts his book by explaining his philosophy about why it is important to explicitly teach students how to write nonfiction papers and passages. His section on how to organize the nonfiction books in a classroom so that students feel invited to write expository papers is full of great ideas for any teacher. He states that, besides organizing books by topic, it is critical to label them according to their readability, particularly if students are going to write their own research paper. This way, students can self select the books that are at the appropriate reading level for them Color coding the books also allows teachers to assess their classroom collection of books and check if they need to acquire more books at a certain reading level.

Stead explores different kinds of non-fiction text. They are:

?       Instructional Writing (the writer tells the reader how to achieve a particular goal or how to follow a set of procedures)

?       Descriptive Reports (the writer describes the way things are in the world; the purpose is to describe a thing rather than to retell a series of events)

?       Scientific Explanations (the writer describes why something happens or is as it is ñlike why wood floats; or describes how something works or was formed ñfor example, how planes fly)

?       Persuasive Writing (the writer encourages the reader to purchase something, change an opinion about an issue, or partake in a specific activity)

?       Nonfiction Narrative (the writer retells specific events in the lives of specific people for the purpose of informing and/or entertaining)

Each one of these sections is described in detail. Stead provides a sample of how a unit was taught in a real classroom, how the teacher modeled the lesson, and how the students responded. It also includes an excellent assessment rubric which includes all the steps students need to learn as they write their paper. At the end of each chapter, Stead provides a list of possible topics and prompts teachers can use. It also provides an extensive list of books, classified according to their readability, that students can use as a reference when writing a nonfiction report.

I strongly recommend the book ìIs That a Fact?î by Tony Stead to any teacher who will be teaching elementary students how to write in the different styles of nonfiction writing.